Mitacs Elevate Postdoctoral Funding - Fall 2022 Call for Proposals

Sponsor

Mitacs

Program

Elevate

For More Information

For complete program details and how to apply, please visit the Mitacs Elevate program web-page.

Description

Mitacs Elevate is a postdoctoral fellowship with an exclusive professional development curriculum component. Fellows address complex challenges through:

• a two-year research project with a partner organization in need of high-level expertise;
• a professional development curriculum that prepares Elevate fellows for success as leaders in research and industry.

Fellows progress through the program in a cohort, giving them cross-disciplinary networking and peer-learning opportunities they might not have otherwise in their careers. Over the two-year fellowship, fellows divide their time between their partner organization's project and academic institution-based research with their academic supervisor. The Elevate Fall 2022 call will offer two award options: 

Standard

• The award is valued at $60,000 per year with a minimum stipend of $55,000.
• Partner organization contributes $30,000 per year. 
• The Indigenous Pathways offering will remain available. Indigenous Pathways supports Indigenous partner organizations and interns. Partners contribute only 25% of the cost of the project.  

Thematic 

• The award is valued at $80,000 per year with a minimum stipend of $70,000 for projects addressing at least one of the following key priority sectors: 
  • agriculture and food
  • artificial intelligence
  • biomanufacturing
  • clean technology
  • entertainment and media
  • quantum science
  • social innovation.
• Partner organization contributes $40,000 per year. 
• The Indigenous Pathways offering will remain available. Indigenous Pathways supports Indigenous partner organizations and interns. Partners contribute only 25% of the cost of the project. 

Eligibility

 Postdoctoral Fellows

• They are Canadian citizens, permanent residents or international applicants.
• They are based at an academic institution located in Canada for the duration of the fellowship.
• Their date of graduation from a PhD program is less than five years to proposed start date of the Elevate project, unless:
  • Fellows who have had a break in their career due to military service, illness, or family leave may be considered exceptions and must be approved in advance of application.
  • If this situation applies to you or you have any questions, please contact Mitacs at elevate@mitacs.ca.
• They have fulfilled all PhD degree requirements (e.g., successful defence, final deposit, and sign-off of the dissertation), meet the postdoctoral fellow eligibility criteria at their home academic institution, hold a postdoctoral fellow status for the entire duration of their Mitacs Elevate fellowship.
• They can commit to the two-year Mitacs Elevate fellowship, including the exclusive professional development curriculum. Replacement or substitute fellows are not allowed.
• Fellows who have held a Mitacs Accelerate award as a Master's or PhD student are eligible as long as they have not completed more than one year (three internship units equivalent) of Mitacs Accelerate at postdoctoral level. Any Mitacs Accelerate awards must be completed before the start of the Mitacs Elevate fellowship.
• Fellows cannot apply to multiple Mitacs programs for the same period of time.

Fellows are ineligible if they have: 

• been employed for more than six months in an R&D position outside the academic institution after receipt of their doctoral degree.
• received an offer of employment from the proposed partner organization (except an offer of this fellowship) or short-term employment of up to six months while awaiting a decision on the Mitacs Elevate fellowship.
• completed more than one year (three internship units equivalent) of Mitacs Accelerate at the postdoctoral level before the start of the Elevate fellowship; and
• previously held a Mitacs Elevate award. Fellows who have completed Mitacs Elevate are also ineligible for Mitacs Accelerate.
• if the application is not recommended for an award, fellows may not be eligible to apply again if they have accumulated more than six months of industrial or partner organization work. It is recommended that fellows accept a temporary contract only if necessary and that the period is kept as short as possible. 

Partner Organizations

• They are Canadian or a Canadian location of a foreign-owned organization.
• They are end users of the research.
• They have an office or site where the fellow undertakes at least 50% of the fellowship interacting with the partner. 
• They are for-profit corporations and crown corporations receiving no more than 50% of their revenues from government sources.
• They are eligible not-for-profit (NFP) corporations such as industry associations, charitable organizations, and economic development organizations.
  • All research projects in collaboration with an NFP corporations must demonstrate an economic or productivity orientation such as creating new jobs, reducing costs of goods or services, or increasing productivity in a process or industry. 
• They are a hospital or municipality in Canada.
  • All research projects in collaboration with a hospital, or municipality must demonstrate an economic or productivity orientation such as creating new jobs, reducing costs of goods or services, or increasing productivity in a process or industry.

Maximum Project Value

Standard: $60k per year.

Thematic: $80k per year.

Indirect Costs

0%

Project Duration

Elevate projects are two years in length.

Special Notes

Please note the following:

• Industry partner matching funds must be remitted to Mitacs directly. Funds that are already at the University cannot be used for matching purposes.
• No additional funding contribution is required from the academic supervisor or university. Fellowships will be awarded competitively.
• For applications that involve Indigenous partner organizations and/or an intern who is Indigenous, please review the Mitacs Indigenous Pathways cost-sharing opportunities and connect with Emily Gordon (egordon@mitacs.ca) for more information.

How to Apply

1.  Connect with Emily Gordon, University of Guelph's Mitacs Business Development Representative

1. Apply with the Mitacs' Online Application system
2. Follow the Mitacs' guidelines when writing your proposal 
3. Submit your proposal for pre-review to egordo05@uoguelph.ca by 4:30pm on January 25, 2023.

2. Upload the following additional documents to your Elevate application: 

1. Postdoctoral fellow’s CV
2. Proposed academic supervisor’s CV
3. Three recommendation letters with letterhead and signature required. Please refer to the Recommendation Letter Guidelines.
   1. One (1) recommendation letter from the proposed academic supervisor
   2. One (1) recommendation letter from a former supervisor or person familiar with the fellow’s research expertise
   3. One (1) recommendation letter from an eligible partner organization including financial contribution in dollar amount
4. Any supplementary documents as applicable

3. Submit your finalized draft Elevate application (including signatures on the Memorandum), along with signed OR-5, to research.services@uoguelph.ca, by 4:30pm ET on February 1, 2023. 

4. Submit your completed Elevate application to Mitacs by 8pm ET on February 8, 2023.

5. Approved projects must begin before September 6, 2023.